Download of the Week: William Eggleston

Musik is the 77-year-old Eggleston's debut album, following his career as one of the most important photographers of our time.

I don't know about you, but I am a great fan of the double-dipping artist. My favorites include Henri Michaux, Antonin Artaud, and Adolf Wölfli. If we use these as examples, it's safe to say there's an inherent quirkiness in their work that strikes me as being informed by their other creative half. Musik is, to my ears, quirky as hell.

In the 1980's, Eggleston, who disdained digital cameras and modernity in general, became surprisingly fascinated with a synthesizer, the Korg O1/W FD, which had 88 piano-like keys, and in addition to being able to emulate the sound of any instrument, also contained a four-track sequencer that allowed him to expand the palette of his music, letting him create improvised symphonic pieces, stored on 49 floppy discs, encompassing some 60 hours of music from which this 13 track recording was assembled.

William Eggleston, Memphis, 1965-1968, from the series Los Alamos, 1965-1974

Audiophile tie-in: EgglestonWorks was founded by William's son.

I'm also a fan of the cover song because we get to hear how someone, like William Eggleston in this case, hears something familiar. Lerner and Lowe's "On The Street Where You Live" has never sounded so harrowingly gothic.